Christine's Reviews > Halloween

We all know the story; a serial killer who stalks his victims with a large butcher knife, turning every Halloween into a bloodbath - but now we know why.
The prologue opens with the ancient festival of Samhain and a teenage outcast named Enda, who is put to death by hanging after he kills and curses his crush and her new husband in a jealous rage. Over the years, Enda lives on, through his curse - instructing the cursed to kill via a voice in their head. Michael's grandfather heard the voice. Now at just the young age of 6, so does he.
Michael has been changing. Getting into fights at school, wetting the bed again, having violent dreams, and of course, hearing that voice in his head telling him to kill. He begins to think that maybe if he does, it will finally go away. That Halloween night, he returns home from trick-or-treating early to find his sister, Judith, and her boyfriend the only ones home. He decides to test his theory about ridding himself from the voice by violently stabbing his sister to death, all the while feeling true joy.
Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where he is assigned psychologist, Sam Loomis. Loomis reports to the judge every six months, knowing in his heart there is something deeply wrong with the boy, but unable to prove anything he feels. Luckily the judge agrees, where the young boy remains for the next 15 years.
Eventually in 1978, Michael finally makes his escape from the sanitarium, stealing a vehicle and speeding away. Sam Loomis knows exactly where his patient is heading - 150 miles away, to Haddonfield, IL - just in time for Halloween.
Meanwhile in Haddonfield, highschool student Laurie Strode and her two best friends are being stalked. Who is that strange man she keeps seeing? First he's outside her school, watching through the window, then he's hiding in the bushes, next he drives by them on their walk home. He's in her yard. He's calling her house. Tailing her and her friend as they drive around town.
"Maybe that's why God put devils like the Myers kid on earth - to keep us aware of the dark side of human nature."
Then someone breaks into the hardware store to steal rope and a large knife. The infamous Myers house is broken into, with a mutilated dog found inside. Judith Myers headstone is stolen. Tonight, neither Laurie, nor her two best friends will be safe from the terror that's just set foot back in Haddonfield. The girls have no clue that this Halloween, they'll end up fighting for their lives.
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I really liked this novelization and I'm grateful to finally be able to add it to my collection; it was definitely the perfect book to read for the Halloween season. It was a quick and easy read, with the extra backstory about Michael Myers, which I liked.